5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

by Ivan on January 11, 2010

I’ve started to use my social networks more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

Ivan Walsh's Linkedin Profile page

Ivan Walsh's Linkedin Profile page

5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

What does LinkedIn offer that Facebook doesn’t? Here are five reasons to Leave Facebook and join LinkedIn instead.

  1. Target Audience – the average age on Facebook is 20 something and female. It’s a great place to meet people, swap videos, and chat. But it’s not a business platform. LinkedIn’s average age is 41. Most everyone is a business professional trying to meet other business professionals. So, for me, this gives it a huge edge of Facebook.
  2. Business Groups – LinkedIn is designed around business groups. You can join these and instantly connect with people with similar interest. On Facebook, there may be fan pages, but it’s often just that, fans! No real dialogue goes on.
  3. Recommendations – you can build relationships with people on LinkedIn and once they know/trust/do business with you, will give you recommendations. These professional endorsements give you an element of credibility that you don’t get elsewhere. And while this can be abused (I recommend you if you recommend me) it does seem to work.
  4. Integration with other platforms – you can connect to LinkedIn from multiple social media portals, such as BusinessWeek, AMEX Open Platform, and even from Facebook.
  5. Knowledge Exchange – I’ve kept the best for last. The conversations I have on LinkedIn are with the best people in their fields. You can learn a huge amount just by listening. Ask questions and see what comes back. The quality is very high. And unlike other sites, the conversations rarely degenerate into slanging matches. You can also receive the comments by email every day or bundled into a single email every week.

I will highlight other business benefits in the coming weeks. These are the first that come to mind.

Your thoughts

What do you think of LinkedIn? How does it compare to other business sites you’ve used? What would you like to see changed in it? How could it be improved?

PS – You can view my profile here – http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh

Need help with your web writing? Click here for a Free Quote


Click here to get a free quote

Tagged as: Add new tag, Facebook, Linkedin, Social network, Twitter

  • Kai

    I like LinkedIn much better than Facebook, because I feel I have much more control over what I divulge – even before the recent dubious Zuckerberg interview…

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    Hello Kai,

    It’s a good point. Actually, I've changed my privacy settings on Facebook recently as too many automated ‘friends’ we’re trying to link up with me.

    Also, with a few exceptions, I don’t get the return from Facebook that I get with LinkedIn.

    For example, there are 132 comments on which is correct – User Guide or User Manual?
    I thought I knew (it all) but when you see the answers, it gives you an insight that you hadn’t seen before. For me, that’s the value add.

    FWIW – You can see the technical writing groups on my LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) profile page.

  • sue_anne

    Probably for the past year or so, I've been very mindful on how I use social networks. I'm not sure if I would call it strategic or just recognizing that there were groups of people I was okay with having certain information and there were groups of people I wasn't. The biggest requirement for being a “friend” on Facebook is that I've met you in person and have some sort of relationship with you – high school, college, etc.

    LinkedIn is a great place to network with potential business contacts without giving them access to the types of things you share on Facebook.

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    Likewise, I get great mileage out of LinkedIn.

    I think it’s because it so focused and most everyone there has the same aim – whereas Facebook is more “look at my cat do kung fu” which is fine but there is no dialogue.

    And I think that’s the key. I want to use my time as well as I can. Sites like JH and Brogan nourish me in ways that Facebook doesn’t. That’s no slight on Facebook.

    It’s just about being selective/intentional with your time.

  • sue_anne

    Keeping in contact with my friends and family is super important to me. Before, I was doing it with email. That took a lot longer pre-Facebook. :) I tend to ignore most of the Farmville / Mafia Wars timesucks and enjoy the photos and connections.

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    fwiw Posterous is incredible if you want to share photos, mp3 etc with your friends to different sites with a single click

    http://posterous.com/

    instead of going to flickr, youtube etc, it does it for you – and you can even do it all via email.

  • sue_anne

    Already on posterous: http://sueannereed.posterous.com/

    Facebook is more about me keeping up with what my friends and family are doing and less about me sharing information with them. I have lots of friends / family with babies and families. Facebook is a great way for them to share photos / videos easily. Especially for those friends that are less into social media, Facebook is super easy.

  • http://detroit.fwix.com Jamie Favreau

    I have totally gotten my mileage out of both Linked IN and Facebook. I am a somewhat open networker on both but I feel this will help me in the long run.

    I do answer questions and change status messages and try and stay relevant. When I am looking to contact someone at a company about a possible position LI is the best place and since they added the Twitter function to it a well. It helped break the ice more than had I left it alone.

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    Hello Jamie.

    One of the nice things on LinkedIn is that people seem to go the extra yard for you. I think this is because we’re all in this together and when one gains, we all gain.

    Much as I love Facebook, comments are often ‘of the moment’ and fleeting, whereas in LinkedIn they’re more thought out and with a little depth. Of course, each has its own place, though I find Facebook less compelling these days as the ROE is less.

    ROE is my new word of the day. Saw it on the avc.com site. Return on Engagement.

    Nice idea isn’t it?

    Of course, now I'm thinking, how do I determine my ROE?

    Thanks for dropping by,

    Ivan

  • http://www.markzware.com/blogs/markzware-user-group-linkedin-graphic-design-publishing-print/2010/01/15/ » Markzware Group on Linkedin for Graphic Design, Publishing and Print

    [...] you do not have a profile on Linkedin.com yet, I highly recommend you join Linkedin today (check this out too). Righty-o, onto how you can join up with Markzware there and connect with us personally as [...]

  • http://twitter.com/DrMargaretLee Margaret

    I find the Linkedin is getting more spammy these days. So many comments and discussions are just an excuse to plug a service. Think they need to address this, somehow…

  • http://markzware.com/blogs/markzware-news/markzware-user-group-linkedin-graphic-design-publishing-print/2010/01/15/ Markzware User Group on Linkedin for Graphic Design, Publishing and Print

    [...] you do not have a profile on Linkedin.com yet, I highly recommend you join Linkedin today (check this out too), whether you handle printable envelope projects, printing on the printable envelopes, or [...]

Previous post:

Next post: